It is often difficult to drain and sample small volumes of effusion from regions in the body that are often difficult to reach including, for example, the middle ear. For example, otitis media is a middle ear infection that is extremely common and manifests itself with the presence of fluid in the middle ear. This fluid, or effusion, may be serous, mucoid, or purulent. Proper treatment often entails delicate procedures to collect and analyze a sample of the effusion. An example of such procedures is tympanocentesis, wherein needle aspiration of the middle ear is used to identify the causative organism in middle ear effusion.
The collection of bodily secretions or effusion is important for research, therapeutic analysis, and diagnosis of various diseases, infections, and other ailments. While instruments of various types have been employed in the past to collect secretion samples for therapeutic analysis and research, they do not provide ease of in-line use with current surgical or medical apparatus; ease of cleaning, re-use, and maintenance; and ease of use with research equipment to properly analyze and diagnose the issue.
In the past, tympanocentesis was performed with an Alden-Senturia trap with needle attached. Although such a trap could be utilized with surgical apparatuses, such a trap was difficult to manipulate during the procedure. Other current devices utilized in aspirating samples include U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,538 (hereinafter the '538 patent), which  provides a disposable aspirator that includes a flexible tube used to reach the cavity from which the liquid specimen is to be collected. The flexible tube of the aspirator inhibits appropriate in-line use with current surgical and/or medical. Further, because the aspirators of the '538 patent are disposable, it is expensive when a great number of samples are required.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,860 discloses a transformable suction line. In use, the suction line is attached to an endoscope. When a sample specimen is required, the suction line can be shifted into an apparatus for trapping a specimen. The apparatus is difficult to clean and if reused repeatedly during a single operation, the samples are often contaminated.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,815 discloses a fluid collection container including a selectively removable insert designed to receive small amounts of bodily fluids. Because the collection container is sized to provide the reception of either small or large quantities of bodily fluids, the collection container is difficult to manipulate when performing delicate procedures to drain and obtain small volumes of effusion. Further, the device is not meant to be used in-line with surgical or medical devices.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a device that is re-usable, that can be applied to standard surgical or medical apparatus to gather small volumes of bodily fluids, and that can easily transfer the sample specimen for diagnosis and/or analysis.